fabric London has extended its relationship with Martin Audio dating back nearly quarter of a century, by announcing a substantial upgrade to its flagship Room One.
Since the installation of Martin Audio W8C, Blacklines and WSX subwoofers at the start of the new millennium the club has gone through several generations of Martin Audio systems—maintaining its art sound systems, offered to its roster of world class DJs.
But when it came to the latest refresh, technical manager Matt Smith decided to follow a different path. Nervous at the prospect of losing what he describes as “that distinctive Room 1 sound” he asked Martin Audio if they would overhaul the existing 20-year-old W8L line array by fitting it with new drivers.
However, it was quite a journey before that decision was reached, and involved auditioning several different brands. “Although they all sounded amazing it was just going to change the character of what the room was about,” Smith acknowledges. He was also mindful that it had been fabric founder Keith Reilly who had countenanced the original switch to Martin Audio “and that there was a romanticism about this system.”
Finally, he consulted the club’s inner pool of promoters, DJs and sound engineers, along with his in-house team: “they were unanimous that we should renovate in order to retain the signature Martin Audio sound and preserve what is quite a historic installation.”
The install has supported the re-energised mid-tops with an entirely end-to-end Martin Audio infrastructure, including SHX218 2 x 18” subs, iKON multi-channel DSP amplifiers, new FlexPoint speakers and XE300—at the same time repurposing the Blackline F12s that have delivered DJs’ reference sound up in the booth.
The new Room 1 layout offers the familiar sight of the four newly powder-coated four W8L, two left and right on the stage, matched with repurposed W8C, two left and right at the back.
The eight SHX218 subwoofers have been designed in a broadside array under the front of the stage, as the club had decided to revert to a horn hybrid. Because these are much bigger the team had to take the wheels off and enlarge the cavities under the stage. 10 Martin Audio iKON amplifiers are preent , with 9x iK42 running the bulk of the system, with a single iK81 driving the MF / HF for the main enclosures.
The club’s original DSP and networking had been entrusted to the Soundweb environment but the DSP for the sub array, along with delay times and all presets have now transferred to the process-controlled iKONs.
Meanwhile, four of the recently launched FlexPoint FP12’s have replaced those original, custom-built Blackline F12s in the DJ booth, the latter redeployed to rear downfill duties “to make the size of the dancefloor a bit bigger.” New X15s distribute sound at mezzanine level along with two further repurposed Blackline F15s. Finally, four additional XE300 are available for nights featuring live bands or MCs.”